


When You Go, I Will Follow

by Havoka



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Afterlife
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havoka/pseuds/Havoka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emily awakens in her house to find that things are strangely different...and that an old friend is waiting for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Best Friends Forever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfic has been updated to reflect the canon last names revealed by Rush of Blood, 10/13/16

Emily’s heavy eyelids reluctantly peeled apart as she opened her eyes. Where was she? The hazy yellow room came slowly into focus as she blinked away her sleepiness.

Had it all just been a dream?

She was in her bedroom – but not the bedroom she’d grown accustomed to. Her symmetrical, minimalistic and tasteful décor had been replaced with torn-out pages from pre-teen magazines, posters of musicians who hadn’t had a hit song in nearly a decade now, and photographs of her and her friends through the years.

This was her bedroom when she was ten years old.

Her bed was much too small for her, she realized as she unfolded her adult self from the overstuffed little thing. Even though she was at her current age of nineteen, she realized from a glance down at herself that she was wearing clothing she’d owned in her tween years – a light pink t-shirt with sequins in the shape of a heart, faded jeans that were carefully ripped at the knees, and purple-striped Chococat socks. She’d worn these exact clothes as a kid. How the hell did they fit her now?

Before she could explore any further, the front doorbell rang downstairs. Emily listened for someone to get it. Nobody did. A few minutes later the bell rang again.

Emily opened her bedroom door. Like the walls around it, the door was also smothered in decoration – some of Emily’s best drawings, a few photographs, and a sign that said “Emily’s Room” in childish handwriting. She paused for a brief moment to look it over. One of her favorite pictures of all time was positioned front-and-center – herself and Jessica at their very first concert, Gwen Stefani back in 2005. They’d begged their mothers to take them. In the picture they were grinning, their arms wrapped around each other while Jessica’s mom tried not to look bored in the background.

That photo used to make her smile. Now it just felt like a kick in the heart.

The doorbell rang a third time. “I’m coming!” she yelled as she descended the stairs. She noticed on the way down that her room wasn’t the only part of the house that seemed to have time-traveled. Everything was back to the way it was when she was a kid.

Emily approached the front door with hesitation, fully aware that she looked ridiculous in her oversized kids’ clothes. She almost considered not answering the door until she remembered she had already given her presence away by shouting.

And so she pulled open the front door. “Oh my God.”

Standing before her was Jessica. Although she was also at her current age, she too was dressed in clothing Emily recalled her wearing years ago – a tight-fitting grey tank top with a sparkly pink skull and crossbones on the front, ridiculously short, equally tight-fitting denim shorts, and bright pink Chucks. Her hair was its usual bleached blonde, but it had a stripe of neon pink in front, the way she’d worn it for a while in middle school.

The two of them stared at each other for a few long seconds. Finally Emily said, “What are you doing here?”

“There wasn’t really anywhere else to go.” Jessica glanced over her shoulder. Emily looked past her, and gasped. Her house’s front steps dropped off into a massive grey abyss. The house itself was surrounded by nothing but grey clouds, too thick to see anything beyond them. Or perhaps there simply _wasn’t_ anything beyond them – the house seemed almost to be floating. All by itself, alone in the storm clouds.

“What’s going on?” Emily stepped outside and stared down into the void. The clouds weren’t just hiding the ground, or the rest of her neighborhood, she realized. There really was nothing there.

“I don’t know.” Jessica shrugged, her eyes cast downward. “The last thing I remember is being grabbed by something…dragged…it hurt a lot…then I was here. I kept trying your doorbell. It feels like I’ve been out here for hours.”

A fleeting sensation crept across Emily’s skin. Heat. Searing heat. It didn’t hurt like it should – she was strangely numb to it. But for a moment it threatened to consume her, crawling over every inch of her face and body. She fanned herself and panted a little, willing the uncomfortable feeling away. Thankfully, it receded.

Jessica was staring at her then, one eyebrow raised slightly. “Oh, um,” Emily tried to gather her thoughts again, “I was…sleeping? I guess? I have no idea why I’m wearing these clothes though.”

Dropping her gaze again, Jessica combed her fingers through her tousled hair. “Can I come in?” she finally asked.

Emily hesitated, though the pause was briefer than she’d expected of herself. She was supposed to be mad at Jess. She was supposed to hate her. But seeing her in this setting, in her old house with all those old pictures, and Jessica in those old clothes she’d worn all the time when they were best friends…

“Yeah,” Emily replied. “Come in.”

Jessica hurried inside, letting Emily shut the door behind her. As soon as they were inside the storm clouds surrounding the house shifted from an angry charcoal to a softer and fluffier off-white. Emily stared at them for a moment out the nearest window. A ray of sunlight had wormed its way through the fog. It beamed right in that very window at her, casting the room in a bright, warm glow.

“I don’t know why everything’s like this.” Emily led Jessica into the foyer of her large, seemingly-empty house. Upon stepping into the living room, she discovered the entire floor was stacked with cardboard boxes. Jessica stood by awkwardly while Emily looked the boxes over. She noticed at least one of them was labeled on one side – ‘Emmy’s Stuff’.

_Emmy?_  She hadn’t gone by that name since she was a little kid. Where did these boxes come from?

“What’s in all the boxes?” Jess eventually asked. She’d made herself comfortable on the oversized leather sofa against the nearby wall.

Emily hesitated. Rather than responding that she didn’t know, she decided instead to simply open one and find out. She eased open the weathered cardboard flaps of the box marked ‘Emmy’s Stuff’. The first thing in the box was a hardbound notebook that she would recognize anywhere. Her very first diary.

No way was she going to inform Jessica about the presence of a diary. She pushed it out of the way and picked up a folder. It was boring, full of A+ homework assignments and 100% quizzes that had apparently meant a lot to her way back when.

Apart from the diary, school papers made up the majority of this box. Was that all she’d had as a kid that she’d considered worth saving? True, she didn’t have the most social childhood, but still…

Jessica cleared her throat, still awaiting a response to her question. Emily scowled. “It’s nothing. Just…nothing.” She stuffed a fistful of homework papers back into the box. “Just a bunch of stupid shit.”

About to close the box again, Emily found herself staring down at the diary. What did little Emmy have to say about what Emily was looking at now?

Emily picked up the diary. Jessica was watching her. “It’s my…old diary,” she confessed, unhooking the latch that “sealed” it shut.

“Juicy,” Jess murmured.

“It’s super old. I was just a little kid.” She flipped it open to the first page. It was dated May 16th, 2003.

“Well are you gonna read it?” Jessica was examining her nails, pretending not to be interested. But Emily knew her too well.

“Not to you.” Emily skimmed the words herself.

_May 16 th 2003_

_I am outside at resess. There are lots of pretty flowers on the play ground. I like to look at them the whole resess. I do not like to play on the play ground._

Emily stared down at it for a long time. To anyone else the entry would be perfectly innocuous. But she knew the details Emmy was leaving out. It wasn’t that she didn’t _like_ to play with the other kids.

The next page was dated May 19th. This one read:

_I got a 100 on my book report! Ms. Bailey put it up on the wall. Taylor Marshall said only losers get there book reports put on the wall. Every one laughed. Ms. Bailey told them to stop. But they laughed more at resess._

Emily swallowed around a newly-formed lump in her throat. She should just shut the book and put it away. Why relive all the bullshit?

There was only one positive thing she remembered in this diary. Tarnished as it may have become, she wanted to read it. She had to. And so she flipped through a dozen more pages in the diary. Every entry was short and to-the-point, and most were depressing as hell. But then the diary fell open to a much lengthier entry. Emily knew immediately what it was.

“June 9th, 2003,” she read aloud, already knowing what was coming. Jessica perked up a little. “Today was field day. I do not like field day. We did a race where we ran with a bucket full of water and then gave it to a person on our team. I ran with the bucket but a lot of water spilled out. Because of me we did not win the race. The other kids were really mad at me.

Nobody wanted to be my partner for the 3 leg race. Ms. Bailey made Jess Riley be my partner. We did not do very good. In the middle of the race we fell down. I thought that Jess would be mad at me too. But she was not mad. She laughed. She said that this game was stupid anyway.”

There was still another paragraph, but Emily paused to take a breath. She didn’t look over at Jess. Jess didn’t say a word.

“Jess and I pretended we hurt our legs so we could sit on the softball bench and eat slush. Jess said I was nice. I said that she was nice too. I think Jess will be my friend.”

“I always felt sorry for you.” Jessica reclined on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. “Everybody used to make fun of you.”

“I used to think we’d be friends forever.” The confession surprised even Emily herself a little bit. What surprised her even more was the tiny crack in her voice in the middle of the word “forever”. _God damn it, I thought I was over this._

“Yeah, well…” Jessica’s tone changed. “You turned into a bitchlord.”

“And you turned into a slutbag!” Emily’s sadness was quickly converted into anger. Her usual coping method.

The beam of sunlight that had weakly filtered into the room was strangulated by the return of the smog-like grey clouds. Emily clenched her teeth, practically snarling in Jessica’s direction. Jessica rolled her eyes and kept her gaze averted. Emily assumed this would have been the point where Jessica walked out, had she anywhere to go.

“My younger self was an idiot for trusting you.” Emily practically threw the diary back into the box. She got to her feet, needing to walk away before she completely exploded.

Jessica opened her mouth to respond, but closed it before any words actually came out. _Good. Bitch has nothing to say to that._ Her internal gloating was hollow, though. She felt no happiness from her “victory”.

She stormed off, into the kitchen.

 

* * *

 

Jessica sprawled out on the sofa. Pursuing Emily when she was in the red zone was never a good idea. Better to leave her alone and let her return when she was ready.

What Jessica had said had been mean. Maybe unnecessarily so. After all, she was the one who had torn apart their friendship in the first place. Emily had never actually done anything to hurt her. Not like she’d done to Em.

A minute passed. Jessica could hear Emily pacing the tiled kitchen floor, her socked feet padding gently against it. Everyone always thought Emily was just a cold, heartless bitch. But Jessica knew better. Em’s problem wasn’t that she didn’t care enough. It was that she cared _too much_.

Making sure to listen for Emily’s footsteps, Jessica slipped off the couch and over to the box that held Em’s old diary. She quietly picked it up, and opened it to a random page toward the end.

_July 24 th 2003_

_Today I went to the beach with Jess and her mom and dad. There family has there own part of the beach! I did not know you can own the beach._

_It was very fun. Jess and I made a sand castle and I found a crab. Jess was scared of the crab. I was not scared at all. We also found nice sea shells. I gave Jess the pretty ones because she is pretty like them._

Jessica frowned. Flipping forward a few pages, she found another entry that mentioned her. It was so simple, and yet it stung her deeply.

_August 2 nd, 2003_

_I think Jess Riley is my best friend. I have not ever had a best friend before now. It is nice._

She felt the beginnings of two small tears well up in her eyes. For whatever Em acted like now, Emmy was still within her. The shy, self-conscious, friendless girl Jessica had befriended in spite of the other kids trying to pressure her into excluding the “Teacher’s Pet” with them – it was the same girl she was with right now. The girl she’d turned on and wounded to the core over stupid, petty jealousy.

With Emily still in the other room, Jessica silently opened another box. This one was full of photographs. The oldest pictures were all either Emily with family members or by herself. As she dug deeper into the box, she began to find newer pictures. Pictures of the two of them as kids. In one picture they were both smiling. In the next picture, clearly taken the same day, they were making faces at each other and trying not to laugh. As the pictures grew more recent, more friends began to appear in them. Jessica’s friends, who had absorbed Emily into their group by extension. Even in the largest group photos, Jessica and Emily were always next to each other, usually striking some silly or overdramatic pose.

A teardrop splotched one of the old photographs. Jessica wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. What had she done? She’d taken the best friendship she’d ever had and traded it away for a _boy_. Taken the already-shaky foundation of Emily’s social life and shattered it. Nobody cared about Em like she did. Hell, even Matt had sided against her when she and Jessica got into that fight earlier. Em had devoted herself to Jessica for so many years that when she turned on Emily, Emily had no one else.

_God, how could I have been such an asshole?_

Setting the pictures back in the box, Jessica rose and stared at the kitchen door. Emily was upset. Her best friend in the whole world was upset. And it was her fault. Regardless of how intimidating Em could be when she was angry, she deserved an apology. Jessica could suck it up and give her one.

As she reached for the kitchen door, she heard Emily’s voice on the other side. “Oh my God.”

“Em?” Jessica called through the door. “What’s up?”

When Emily didn’t answer, Jessica took it upon herself to slowly open it.

 

* * *

 

Emily hurried into the kitchen and practically slammed the door behind her. _Damn it. Damn it damn it._ Fucking Jessica. She gracelessly wiped her running nose on the back of her hand. She despised crying, and she’d be damned if she was going to do it in front of the person who hurt her.

She paced back and forth, trying to collect herself. The memories kept washing over her in waves. And she still didn’t even know what was going on. Why she and Jessica were in tween clothes and her house appeared to be floating in the god damn sky.

Something rubbed against the base of her leg. Emily glanced down, then gasped. “M-Miki?”

Her hairless Sphynx cat sat down at her feet and meowed. “Miki…oh my God!” She knelt down and scooped up the wrinkly pink feline. “Oh my God, you – but you’re…”

Mikiko had been Emily’s birthday present when she was six years old. She was a purebred Sphynx that, Emily found out when she was older, had cost her parents close to three thousand dollars. She’d passed away a few months ago from an inoperable tumor.

Mikiko kissed Emily’s cheek, her whole little body rumbling contentedly. “I don’t understand.” Emily blinked away her tears as she scratched Mikiko under her chin. “Am I…dreaming? I don’t feel asleep…but Miki, you…you died.”

“Em?” Jessica’s voice resounded from behind the slammed kitchen door. “What’s up?”

Emily wiped her eyes again, desperately trying to hide the fact that she had been crying. Before she could respond, Jessica nudged the door open.

“Ugh!” Emily turned away as quick as she could. “Get out!”

Jessica didn’t flinch. Unfortunately for Emily, Jess had all but built up an immunity to her attitude. “Is that Miki?” she asked, as surprised as Emily.

Emily hugged Mikiko to her chest, using her as an excuse to hide her face from Jessica. But eventually Mikiko grew tired of being held and jumped onto the nearby kitchen counter. Emily swallowed. Without Miki there was nothing to buffer her interaction with Jessica.

“I thought Miki died,” Jessica said quietly.

“She did.” Emily watched Mikiko as she jumped back down off the counter and sauntered over to Jessica. Jessica bent down and petted her lightly. Miki had always liked Jess, due in no small part to the fact that Jess used to smuggle her treats while Emily had her on a strict diet.

“Em, I’m sorry,” Jess said.

Emily stiffened. _No._ Apologies were her biggest weakness. They snuffed out her anger and converted it back into sadness. Into vulnerability.

“Don’t,” was all Emily said in response.

“I’m sorry,” Jess said again. “You’re not a bitchlord. If anything _I’m_ the bitchlord.”

“Yeah. You are.” Emily crossed her arms tight over her chest and wandered over to the kitchen window. Those weird clouds outside were changing again.

Jessica stood up and followed Emily to the window. “You were the best friend I ever had, Em. Maybe…maybe we could be friends again.”

Emily stared out the window. Anything to avoid looking at Jess. The clouds were beginning to part; warm sunlight leaked through them.

She’d been standing perfectly still in the lodge, hiding from watchful wendigo eyes. Sam ran for the door. She could remember…heat…an all-consuming heat. She heard someone, or something, scream. And then she was here.

“Jessica…” she murmured.

“Yeah?” Jessica’s soft green eyes looked her over with a tenderness Emily had nearly forgotten. She’d stared into those loving eyes so many times over the years, confiding every secret to her partner in crime.

“How did we get here?” She waved a hand, encompassing the entire room in her gesture. “Why aren’t we at the lodge? Where’s everyone else?”

The warmth in Jessica’s eyes faded a little. “…I don’t know,” she said, dropping her gaze to the floor.

Emily began to pace from the window to the door. Mikiko followed her path. “It doesn’t make sense,” she mumbled, attempting to override her fear with rationality. She hoped it wasn’t too obvious she was skipping over Jess’s apology. “I was at the fire tower, then I was in the mines, then the cabin, then...the wendigo…we all had to stand still and…”

“Wendigo?” Jessica cut in, trying – but largely failing – to mask the fear in her own voice.

“The…monsters. On the mountain. I guess that’s what they’re called.” Emily shook her head. “I just remember it so clearly. The thing was hanging from the ceiling. I was standing totally still, and then…and then…”

A sudden, vivid memory slammed her. The heat – it was fire. They set fire to the place while she was still inside of it. And she burned.  It took only a few seconds to completely engulf her, after which she felt nothing – but those few seconds were most agonizing she’d ever experienced.

It all made sense then. Why she woke up in a distorted, nostalgic re-imagining of her house in the middle of nothing and nowhere. Why she was wearing clothes she used to love when she was ten years old. Why Mikiko was there.

Her hands started to shake a little. “I burned to death,” she whispered hoarsely. “In the lodge.”

Jessica tilted her head slightly. “What?”

“I died.” Emily stared blankly past Jessica. “I’m dead. I must be. Y-you must be, too. That’s why you weren’t at the cabin. Why Mike was all alone.”

Jessica shifted her weight back and forth, saying nothing in response.

Emily grabbed her by the arm. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Jessica shrugged, now her turn to avert her eyes. “I…kind of thought I might be.”

Emily’s breath caught in her lungs. Jess thought the same thing? But that meant it could be more than just Emily spouting shit. _It can’t be. It can’t be true. No way._

Emily swallowed hard. “What happened to you, then?”

Jessica folded her arms over her chest, defensively, as Emily had been doing a few minutes before. “A monster, maybe the one you were talking about, grabbed me, and…” She shuddered. “It stuck its…fingers…down my throat…then it just…ripped my jaw right off…I felt it…”

Emily had been close enough to the thing to see its long, spindly fingers. The thought of those fingers sliding all the way down her throat sent a shiver through her.

Jessica tightened her crossed arms. Even though she was slightly taller than Emily, retreated into herself like this she appeared so very small.

“I can’t remember the pain now.” She broke her defensive posture long enough to briefly touch her chin. “But I felt it at the time. It hit, like, a peak, the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life. Then it sort of started to go away. Everything sorta started fading, like when I got knocked out for my wisdom teeth surgery.” Her hand dropped from her face. “But it wasn’t exactly the same as that. I didn’t think I knew what dying felt like, but it was like my body said to me, ‘Sorry…I guess this is it.’”

Emily was shaking even harder than before. “Th-that can’t be – you can’t be dead. _I_ can’t be dead! I’ve worked so hard! All these years I pushed myself to be the best, I planned for my whole future. And I went through so much shit – you can’t just tell me this is the end!”

It was too much. Emily couldn’t contain her emotions any longer. She cried out, a strangled noise with no real intent or meaning. Then she felt the familiar clenching of her throat as her body was wracked with sobs.

The next sensation she experienced was the enveloping warmth of Jessica as the other girl drew her into a tight embrace. Emily fought weakly against her, but all too easily surrendered, sinking into her best friend’s arms.

“It’s not fair,” she whimpered, smearing her teary face against the front of Jessica’s shirt. “And we – we never even got to make up for our stupid fighting…”

Jessica patted her on the back. “We could make up now,” she said quietly.

Emily hugged her tighter. She wanted to make amends. God, she did. She loved Jessica more than anyone in the world. Her adult self may have hated apologizing, but her inner child, little Emmy, would do anything to have her best friend back.

She pulled her face from Jessica’s bosom. Biting her lip, she looked up into Jess’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whimpered.

Jessica’s eyes were wet as well. “ _I’m_ sorry, Em. I was such a bitch to you.”

They hugged for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, Emily sniffled and said, “So do you think…this is it? Just the two of us here, forever?”

“I was kind of thinking this is more like a waiting room.” Jessica glanced out the window. The clouds had dissipated. All around the house then was a soft, warm light. “Or maybe we had to make up before we could move on. I don’t know.”

Something sharp latched on to Emily’s leg. She glanced down at Mikiko, who had the claws of one paw sunken into her jeans. Emily reluctantly detached herself from Jessica long enough to give Mikiko some more affection. “Miki must have been waiting for me all these months,” she said as she scratched behind the cat’s large ears. Mikiko pushed against Emily’s hand, purring audibly.

She gave Mikiko a kiss on the head before returning her attention to Jessica. “So if this isn’t ‘it’, then how do we get where we need to go?”

“Well, I got here through the front door. Maybe we can leave through it, too?”

“Guess that’s as good a plan as any.”

They hesitated for a moment, neither of them certain what to say next. Eventually Jessica broke the awkward silence. “I’m really glad we found each other here.”

Emily nodded. “Me too.”

With Mikiko trailing at their heels, the two girls headed back into the main hall of the house.

 

* * *

 

“Whoa.” Emily’s eyes widened at the change of scenery outside. Ten minutes ago her house had been floating in the middle of the clouds. Now it was hovering in nothing but an opaque, all-encompassing light. The only other visible object was a white marbled pathway leading to an imposing grey door.

“So that’s _probably_ how we get out of here,” Jessica said.

They stood on the doorstep of Emily’s house for a long time.

“Jess…” Emily eventually murmured.

Jessica turned to her. “Hm?”

“What if we go to Hell?”

“Why would we go to Hell?”

Emily raised an eyebrow. “Really, Jessica?”

“What? We’re not bad – well I mean we’ve done some bad stuff, but…” Jess hesitated. “You don’t think we’re gonna, do you?”

“I don’t know.” Emily raked a hand through her hair, trying to tally up all of the horrible things she could remember ever doing. There were…quite a few. “I never really believed in all this stuff until now, to be honest.”

“Wait, wait – I gave five dollars to one of those bell-ringing guys around Christmas time.”

Emily sneered. “You did?”

“I felt guilty. He just kept ringing that stupid bell in my face.”

“Well maybe stuff like that will take off a sin or two. Like a Free Sin pass.” Emily racked her brain for any Free Passes she may have earned over the years. She couldn’t think of a single one.

“Oh my God,” Jessica gasped, “What if one of us goes to Heaven and the other one doesn’t?”

“You’re not gonna go to Heaven because you gave five dollars to a bell-ringer,” Emily muttered. “If this whole Heaven/Hell dichotomy _does_ actually exist then we’re probably both gonna end up in the same place. Every shitty thing we’ve done, we’ve done together.”

The door loomed before them, a silent sentry. There was no way of telling where it led.

Emily felt Jessica’s hand slip into hers. “Ready to go, then?” she asked.

Emily swallowed, then nodded. “I’m glad you’re with me, Jess.”

“You’re glad I died?” Jess laid her free hand over her chest in mock offense.

Emily smirked. “I’m gonna need my Number One Bitch to help me lock it down in Hell, y’know?”

Jessica smiled a little. “We’ll share the throne.”

Emily called for Mikiko. The cat slinked out of the house and followed Jess and Emily down the winding, floating pathway. When they reached the door, still holding hands, the girls both took a deep breath. Emily reached out and attempted to turn the ornate doorknob. Before she could, the door slid open by itself.

After thoroughly sniffing the doorway, Miki strolled through the passage and disappeared into the fog beyond. Just like the old days, Jessica led Emily onward, into the new and unknown. The two of them remained connected until they vanished into the mist.


	2. (Epilogue) ...And Ever

“How’s my tan?” Jessica twisted around, trying to look at her own back. “Is it even?”

Emily lifted her sunglasses. “You look like an overcooked white girl.”

“Good. That’s what I’m going for.” She adjusted her own sunglasses and laid back down on the rock they were “sunbathing” on.

Emily crossed her legs idly. “So what do you think everyone else is doing right now?” she eventually asked.

Jessica didn’t answer.

“Jess?” Emily peered over at her. Jessica was fast asleep, snoring quietly. “…You lazy whore.”

Emily sat up and stared at the pillar of flame spouting up before them. “You know, I don’t even think you can get a tan from fire. I think we’re just burning.”

Jessica stirred. “Hm?”

“We’re probably just getting burned.”

Jessica shrugged. “Who cares? We’re dead.”

“Good point, I guess.” Yawning herself, Emily glanced over at the tiny ledge where Mikiko was sleeping. She was loving the heat of this place. It had taken some getting used to on Emily’s part, but she was beginning to accept it. At the very least it was a good excuse to lie around and do nothing, a pastime both Miki and Jess were quite fond of. Now the three of them spent most of their days either lounging about or sleeping.

She still couldn’t believe they’d actually been sent to Hell. Granted it wasn’t a permanent sentence, but still. They probably could have sweet-talked their way out of it if that bitch Beth Washington hadn’t shown up to testify against them.

Emily scowled at the thought. It was going to be a long hundred years.

Jessica was steadily shimmying closer to her, she noticed. Emily shifted away from her. “No, come on, it’s too hot.”

With a grin, Jess dove for her. Her gross, sweaty body melded into Emily’s as she pulled her into a vise-like embrace.

“Ugh!” Emily attempted to stand up and shake her off, but in the process lost her footing. The two of them tumbled off their rocky perch and bounced all the way down the jagged crag. They landed with a splat in the viscous mud pit below.

A myriad of skeletal hands burst forth from the mud, weakly grabbing for Emily. With them a chorus of drowned moans echoed from beneath the bog. “Seriously?” Emily struggled free from the grasp of the damned souls who, unlike her and Jessica, were not serving a temporary sentence.

Upon glancing over at Jess, she realized the other girl was laughing. She’d landed just outside the mud pit. Emily wiped the mire from her face and scowled at her. “Let me guess – that was your plan right along.”

Jessica grinned even bigger. “Actually it wasn’t. But now that we’re here…”

She waded into the mud with Emily. Em scooped up a fistful of it and flung it at her. Jess attempted to duck, but stumbled in the thick muck and fell face-first into it.

“Ha.” Emily grabbed her and pushed her down further into the mud. Jessica squirmed and fought, and with enough writhing she managed to topple Emily down with her. They wrestled in the disgusting, soggy pit, ignoring the withered hands that bid vainly to drag them under.

Emily managed to gain the upper hand enough to grab hold of Jessica and keep her locked in one place. Hardly fazed by her position, Jess beamed up at Em, her face and hair smothered with mud. Emily tried to glare down at her, but Jessica’s smile was contagious. She felt herself starting to smile as well.

“This probably wasn’t a good idea.” Jess bit her lip to stifle a giggle. “I think I have mud in my lady parts.”

“Ha ha.” Emily poked her teasingly. “Mudgina.”

“Oh, shut up.” Jess slipped easily out of Emily’s grip, apparently having only been “pinned” voluntarily. She dragged herself out of the muck, then turned and offered a gooey hand to Emily. Emily refused it, instead struggling to free herself from the mud without Jessica’s help.

When she finally managed to pull herself onto the dry rocks, Emily thought about wiping the mud off her face. But every inch of her body was caked with it – there was nothing to wipe it off with. Still, it was strangely kind of refreshing. The mud certainly wasn’t cold, or even cool, but it was less hot than the rest of this forsaken place. If they could deal with the other souls trying to grab at them, it could make for a nice little retreat.

“Is it weird that that was actually kind of nice?” she asked.

“No, not really.” Jessica had wandered over to a nearby boiling geyser.  “Mud baths are actually great for your skin. I used to go for one every once in a while.” She cupped her hands and scooped up some water that was sitting in a crevice of the geyser. She splashed her face with it, beginning to clean off the muck.

“Oh, well that’s good to know.” Emily joined her at the edge of the steaming crater. “We’ll have glowing complexions here in the pits of fucking Hell.”

“Hey, we only have ninety-nine years and…so many months to go.” They’d already lost track of the days. Not that there even really _were_ “days” in Hell, since there was no sun to differentiate day from night. “Then we get to leave this fiery shithole and go to Heaven or wherever.”

“Okay, true.” Emily nodded. “And they _did_ say that with good behavior we might even be able to shorten it.”

“Yeah!” Jessica splashed Emily with some water. “So let’s think about the positive stuff. And make sure we look damn good when we see everyone again.”

 

 


End file.
